Twelve dead dolphins found on Black Sea coast

Twelve dead dolphins have been found along Romania's Black Sea coast, authorities said on Tuesday.

The dolphins were found over the past few days on a beach near the village of Sfantu Gheorghe, some 250km north-east of Bucharest, said Paul Conorov, the governor of the Danube Delta.

The dolphins measured up to 1,2 metres, Conorov said.

Environmental authorities were investigating why the dolphins died, and said it was difficult to establish the cause of death because the bodies were in an advanced state of decay.

The head of the Romanian Institute for Marine Research in the Black Sea port of Constanta, Simion Nicolaev, said it was possible the dolphins had been caught in fishing nets out at sea and were carried to shore by the tide.

Two years ago, more than 30 dolphins were found dead on the Romanian Black Sea coast.

There are only 2 000 dolphins in the Black Sea, down from 1-million in the 1940s, according to international environment statistics.

Source: www.iol.co.za